Choosing a Chinese Name

There are at least 3 different ways Chinese people choose a name for a child.

The religious type puts together a few of the desired names and take them to a temple. Standing in front of the statue of their god, they hold two red half-moon-shaped wood pieces in their hands. After they tell the god one of the names, they drop the half-moon pieces on the ground. If they get one half-moon piece facing up and the other facing down (as shown in the picture), that means the god approves of that particular name.

The superstitious type relies on fortune tellers to consult the Lunar Calendar to determine the best time and date of birth for a prosperous and healthy life. Once that's decided, the fortune teller can tell the parents how many strokes the child's name has to have and which element (of the 5 elements*) the child's life may be lacking. To compensate for the lack of harmony, parents usually choose characters that contain the lacking element. For instance, I've met a cab driver named 林水淼 because a fortune teller told his parents that, in order to have a good life, he would need more water (水) than wood (木) in his name. Since his surname already contains 2 woods, his parents decided to choose two words that make a total of 4 waters as his given name.
*the 5 elements are: metal 金, wood 木, water 水, fire 火, and earth 土

The third and less common way of choosing a Chinese name is to follow the family ancestry book, which usually documents a particular character for all the children in one generation and each generation would have a different character. It is less common because, in the old days, only big and prestigious families could have family ancestry books. These families were big because couples had to keep having children so there would be more boys to carry on the family name. Moreover, the heads of these families were usually business people and scholars who were literate so they were able to record and read the ancestry books. Literates were also the best educated and well respected people in imperial China.

Your great grandfather came from such a traditional family in China. He was a scholar, a poet, and a columnist. Your great grandmother was a high school piano teacher (it still blows my mind thinking about how her family could afford piano lessons during the Qing Dynasty). Therefore, all their children and grandchildren were named according to the family ancestry book. All the girls in my generation, for example, have the character of "heart" (心, xin) in our names. I don't know where our family ancestry book is. If it still exists, I believe it was passed on to the only male heir in my generation (my cousin Walter in New Hampshire). It's really unfortunate 'cause I would love to find out what the character for all the boys in your generation is.

Now you can imagine how lost your dad and I felt when we decided to give you a Chinese name. We can't go the religious route, and we don't believe in fortune telling. We don't want a "night market name" (a name that causes 15 people to respond when you say it in a night market), yet we don't want a name so unusual that you have to spend 10 minutes explaining every time you talk to a Chinese person. Most importantly, we want a meaningful name that connects you with what we've been through in the past few years. At the same time, the characters in the name have to look and sound solid together. You see how difficult this is?

Well, we finally came up with a name that we both like last weekend (I can't tell you what it is yet 'cause there's still a chance that may change). It meets all the criteria listed above, and it's a good-looking and great-sounding name. We're very excited!

What I do want to record, however, is that I "Googled" that Chinese name and found only one person with the same name (well... it's definitely not a night market name)! This person is a doctor, and I was able to find his name because it appeared on the blog of a nurse who has the biggest crush on him!!! Tee Hee!! How cute is that?!